>Holbein’s Dance of Death

Holbein’s Dance of Death

Emma Klyne
Trinity College Dublin
Department of History of Art and Architecture
2014
BA

Subject: Prints, Engravings and Woodcuts
Country: Germany
Period: 16th Century

10,000 words

This thesis examines the designs for forty-one woodcut engravings which were entitled ‘The Dance of Death’ or Danse Macabre which were done during the years 1524-26. The interest in death as a subject and treated in an allegorical manner shows the preoccupation with mortality in the fifteenth century. The origins of The ‘Dance of Death’ or Danse Macabre postulated to be from illustrated sermons, The popularity of the Dance of Death lasted through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Holbein’s ‘Dance of Death, like many earlier depictions of this theme, not only shows a method through which repentence could be taught, but also the anxieties towards death and religion which affected people during this period. This subject provided an unparelleled opportunity for the broader contemplation of mortality.

Irish Georgian Society

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Holbein’s Dance of Death